


Curiosity and the Cerberus

by wynnebat



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hogwarts First Year, Slytherins Being Slytherins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-18 08:36:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11870598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: There is a secret in a third floor corridor and Pansy Parkinson could not possibly care less.





	Curiosity and the Cerberus

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flipflop_diva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/gifts).



> Because the trio can't be the only ones who found Fluffy, right? I hope you enjoy this fic, flipflop_diva!

"It's that way, isn't it?"

"No, no, Dumbledore said it was to his right, which means west, right?"

"I'm pretty sure I've been everywhere on this floor and nothing's killed me yet."

"Robens, you're just too stupid to find it."

"You're—"

The group of students walks further away from where Pansy stands, and she can't hear Robens' reply, but she can make some assumptions about what he's saying. It feels as though everyone in the castle is talking about the third floor corridor. Even now, in early October, a month after the headmaster's welcoming speech, it's a topic of conversation. No one knows for sure what is held in the corridor—or where the corridor even is, for that matter. Pansy has heard rumors of giant snakes and stampeding pegasi and a portal to hell itself all being held within the corridor, but no one really knows for sure.

Anyone who's actually found the corridor must be keeping its secrets, she thinks, or maybe the certain death clause has taken effect. But the headmaster would let them know if someone has died, wouldn't he?

Pansy clutches her schoolbag tighter nearly unconsciously. Really, the idiocy of those students who've gone looking for the corridor. She'd blame it on the reckless stupidity of Gryffindors, the geeky stupidity of Ravenclaws, and the… well, stupid stupidity of Hufflepuffs, but she knows full well that some of her own house have been out to discover the truth, too.

Not Pansy, of course.

"Do you think they're going to find the right door?" Daphne asks from next to her, nodding toward the hallway the group of students have vanished off into.

Pansy huffs at her. "Of course not. They'll walk around for a bit and then realize they'd rather have dinner than keep walking around in circles. You can't expect Hufflepuffs to have that kind of luck."

"I've heard Hufflepuffs are good at finding things."

"Rubbish," Pansy tells her, firmly. One has to be firm with one's minions, in case they go around getting ideas. Daphne isn't exactly her minion yet—she's not easygoing like Tracey or timid like Millicent—but Pansy has plans for her, and those don't involve Daphne going off and dying. (Unless it's more convenient for Pansy that way, but Pansy can't see that happening, because as irritating as Daphne's headstrong personality can be, she's also one of the more interesting Slytherin girls around.) Unsubtly—the great Salazar Slytherin would not be proud of her—Pansy asks, "Have you done the Charms essay yet?"

"It's due next week?" Daphne says, half as a question. "You're not going to distract me that easily. I'm going to go look for it right after class."

"You're going to skip dinner?"

"I'm not Vince or Greg. I can survive a missed meal."

This would be so much easier if Daphne would submit to minionhood already, Pansy thinks. Then she could just order her not to go and the matter would be solved. But unlike Draco, who's had Vince and Greg in place since before Hogwarts, Pansy still has a lot of work to do. And she can't do any of it if Daphne decides to die on her.

"Take Millicent with you at least, so that if there's something scary in the corridor, you can push her at it first and run away," Pansy orders, although it's not as though she cares for Daphne's life. It's just that it would be bad if a Slytherin died doing something so stupid.

"Millicent's too scared to go and Tracey says she doesn't care what's there. And before you say it, I'm not going with the boys. I mean, Blaise is pretty—"

"Draco is the prettiest," Pansy corrects her absently, but allows her to continue on.

"—nice, I was going to say _nice_ , but he goes to bed early because he likes his beauty sleep, and Draco will talk the entire time, and Theo creeps me out, and Vince and Greg would get lost just following me." Daphne says it all without taking a breath. She does look annoyed, but mostly she looks unhappy.

Good, Pansy thinks. People should look unhappy before they do something stupid and reckless.

"It's your problem," Pansy tells her just as Professor Flitwick opens the door and ushers the class in.

Daphne shoots her a glare, but doesn't say anything more with the professor right there.

She doesn't need to say anything, because her words stick to Pansy like an improperly brewed hair styling potion all throughout class. Instead of concentrating properly on her pronunciation, Pansy keeps thinking about the third floor corridor.

She's had the occasional thought about how it's on the same floor as this classroom, though on the other side of the castle. Pansy has also thought about how the corridor is most likely in the same direction of the astronomy tower, a floor above the DADA room, and furthest away from Professor McGonagall's office. It's not that she cares, but classes are long and it's inevitable that Pansy's thoughts might drift towards the school's second biggest mystery. The actual biggest mystery is how Harry Potter has turned out to be so not mysterious or even halfway interesting, of course.

Too soon, Professor Flitwick announces that they can leave, and Pansy is forced to confront the fact that she's not about to let Daphne go looking for trouble alone. The girl obviously needs someone smart around, and since no one else is going to do it, it's up to Pansy to make sure Daphne doesn't get eaten or lost. And anyway, if the headmaster doesn't want anyone to go there, he shouldn't have announced the corridor as forbidden. That's practically a Slytherin invitation.

Daphne has already left the classroom, so Pansy has to run a little to catch up.

"You owe me for this," Pansy tells her when she finally matches Daphne's strides. "You can be sure that I will collect."

Daphne looks over at her with amusement, but Pansy's pretty sure she can see some relief there, too. "No, I don't."

"I hate you," Pansy tells her, and then tugs Daphne faster towards the area where the corridor should most likely be. "But if we're going, let's do it quickly."

"I can really see how much you don't want to go," Daphne replies, but it's not as though Daphne is any more reticent.

They get there quickly, nearly out of breath, but their hurry turns out to be for naught. For what feels like ages, but is probably closer to only an hour, they walk around, opening every door they come across and losing themselves in corridors and hallways and long classrooms with many doors. Hogwarts is already too big, but as they try to find something that Pansy has started to doubt even exists, it feels massive. It's much too big for two first year girls, even ones as bright as Pansy herself.

Even Daphne looks like she's losing hope by the second hour. She looks like she's trying not to let it show at first, but Pansy can see the way her face stops falling at every dead end and starts looking more resigned.

"Maybe Dumbledore was just joking around," Daphne eventually says, sitting down on a dusty old desk.

They're somewhere on the third floor, but that's all Pansy knows for sure. Somewhere between the fifteenth and the twentieth door, she'd completely lost track.

"We could go and see if there's any dinner left," Pansy offers. "And… try again next time?"

"You'd do that for me?" Daphne asks.

Pansy shrugs. "Maybe. But you'd definitely owe me then."

"Maybe," Daphne replies, a little mockingly, but sounding more like it might be a yes. Pansy decides she's getting better at negotiation already.

She stands up and turns towards one of the doors in the classroom they're in, then squints at it. "Is that the door we came in through?"

"Yes, but I don't think we'll be able to follow our path back," Daphne says, looking around the room. "Do you remember the way?"

"No," Pansy admits. "But if nothing else, we'll be caught by Mrs. Norris or Filch before we starve to death in here."

They share a look. Pansy really doesn't want to be caught by either of them. She's heard Filch hangs students up by their thumbs and she really doesn't want to risk her nails like that. Lifting her chin up with a renewed determination, Pansy opens the nearest door and continues in, tugging Daphne along with her.

This hallway is darker than the others, and Pansy knows for a fact she's never seen the horrid tapestry on the wall next to her. It's the kind of ugly she would've told everyone she knows about.

Shivering despite herself, she says, "Maybe this is a shortcut?"

"Maybe this is it," Daphne replies in a hushed tone. This time, Pansy is the one being dragged along.

There's a door at the end of the corridor and it's locked. It's the first door that's been locked this whole time.

"Can you unlock it?" she asks. Pansy's heart is beating quickly in her chest. Oh, Merlin, she knows she's not supposed to be here. She doesn't even want to be here. (That's a lie, but Pansy lies to herself all the time, so it's just fine.)

"Please, Astoria and I have been breaking into my parents' rooms since I was five," Daphne replies, and starts jabbing her wand into the doorknob's key slot.

"Have your ever found anything interesting?" Pansy asks, watching her. It looks graceless, the way Daphne seems to just be poking at parts of the knob, but also fascinating.

"No, our parents are boring."

"Parents are always boring. I order you to teach me whatever you're doing later."

"Mm," Daphne replies, and then, with more enthusiasm, she says, "Got it!"

The lock opens with a click and Daphne doesn't hesitate to turn the knob. But she does open the door slowly, and not all the way. Just a crack the width of a hand, enough to see inside. While Daphne's peeking inside, Pansy stands up on her tiptoes to get a look over the top of Daphne's blonde head.

Inside, the room is brightly lit, with torches on the walls and candles floating in the air above them, and oh yes, a giant three-headed dog in the middle of the room!

"Shut the door," Pansy quickly hisses.

"He's sleeping!" Daphne argues. "Look, he hasn't even noticed us."

" _It_ could wake up and eat us at any second."

" _He_ , or maybe she, I don't know, looks like a giant version of my crup. With three heads! Just look at him. And those little fangs hanging out of the corners of his mouths! He's adorable."

Still, when the best starts to growl even in its sleep, Daphne has the good sense to quietly shut the door. She's still looking at the door like she's considering opening it again, so Pansy tugs her along, reminding her about certain death and evil monsters and crup slobber. She strides determinedly in a direction away from that room, deciding Mrs. Norris is a much better option after all. At least that animal has only one head.

"But _why_ is there a cerberus at school?" Daphne asks as they make their way back towards the Slytherin dorms.

That, Pansy can't answer. She tries anyway, because how else will she rule her year's crop of Slytherins if she isn't perfect?

"Maybe he's Dumbledore's pet," she says.

Daphne gives her a look. "He's not Dumbledore's pet."

"He _could_ be Dumbledore's pet."

"Maybe he's Professor Snape's pet. Or maybe Professor Snape is keeping him there for potions ingredients!"

"Maybe he's keeping _you_ for potions ingredients," Pansy mutters, because that's a much better theory than she'd come up with. Maybe when Pansy rules Slytherin, Daphne can be her right hand and come up with strategies for ruling the school. Of course, Daphne can't do that if she's dead, so Pansy reminds her, "It's not a good idea to go back there."

With a sigh, Daphne says, "You're probably right. For once, anyway."

"I'm always right."

"But he was cute, wasn't he?"

" _Daphne_."

 

 

A week later, when one of the second years announces that he's seen with his very own eyes that Dumbledore is hiding a pack of trolls in the mysterious third floor corridor, Pansy smiles smugly behind her textbook. She knows the truth. Or at least part of it. Enough to raise a knowing eye at the boy and watch him stress over whether he's been caught in a lie. And really, that's all she needs.

That, and the ability to catch Daphne's eye and share a sneaky smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I'm also on tumblr as @[crownwithoutstones](https://crownwithoutstones.tumblr.com/).


End file.
